"Down from 100 per cent, we are now focusing on 60 per cent of a customer's wallet": Kishore Biyani

Kishore and Ashni Biyani discussed learnings and growth plans at Landmark store in Phoenix Mills, Mumbai

The 'king of Indian retail' as many call him, Kishore Biyani, founder and CEO, Future Group, was at the Landmark store in Phoenix Mills, Mumbai, to discuss his vision and 'future' plans for the Future Group. Indrajit Gupta, editor, Forbes India put forward a few questions.

The discussion delved into Biyani's learnings from the recent economic recession and explored the road ahead for Future Group -- that includes Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Pantaloons and KB's Fair Price -- and the retail sector as a whole. Biyani's daughter Ashni, who now plays an important role in the group, also participated in the discussion.

Biyani was to share some learnings for the Future Group from the recession. Biyani explained that they decided to not shut down any of their main stores during the recession, but instead, water down a few categories, such as gyms, salons, footwear, lingerie and airport retailing. Other specialty format stores were shut down, as the group decided to focus on food, fashion and merchandise, and move out of the rest.

Biyani added that earlier, the group's focus was on capturing 100 per cent of the customer's wallet; but after the recession, the focus is only on 60 per cent of the customer's wallet. The group has decided to stay clear of some categories, including dairy and jewellery, and intensify its focus on other categories.

Gupta also discussed Biyani's "chaos theory of retail", which states that Indians like to shop in a cluttered, chaotic environment; and questioned how Biyani would fuse this with the "clean and clutter-free" Western design and format. Biyani opined, "In the years ahead, maybe when we know what exactly we'd like to sell, things will become orderly. Till then, the chaos works," he says.

When quizzed on how Future Group does things better than international retailers that are coming in, Biyani replied confidently, "We have been around for long; we have most of the Indian insights; and we keep updating ourselves in terms of technology, ideas and leadership thoughts."

He added, "Most international retailers are coming into the country in 2010 with their 2010 business models, when they should be coming with their 80s-90s models, because we are at a place where these would work better." He pointed out that while some retailers enter the business with certain insights and aim to capitalize on specific categories, the true job of a retailer is to create demand.

On competition, Biyani believes that the market is big enough for a lot of people. However, among the top three or four large retailers, it would come down to the customers choosing which one to go to, which would define the winner. "The best war is always the one not fought," he added philosophically.

Ashni also shared how the group is working on regional and linguistic insights, using insights from Bengalis, Punjabis, Tamilians and Kannadigas, among others. For example, for Maharashtrians, 'vazhvi' stands for 'fair price', while 'sasta' denotes 'sale'.

Biyani provided another case in point -- the day of 'Jamai Shoshti' celebrated by Bengalis, where the son-in-law is fed special food and given gifts. Big Bazaar plans to build such a day across communities now and market this smartly.

The Biyanis shared their "new definition of Indian modernity", saying this would be led by food. Their aim is to capitalize on the Indian food heritage with plans to build a "magical food park".

He said, "Big Bazaar's food segment itself will be Rs 10,000 crore in the next three to four years; while earlier, it made up only 30 per cent of the business." The group has already launched Ekta brand of traditional foods. It is also taking "peeks into refrigerators" to gain newer insights on how and what Indians consume. This helped give the insight that even chutney has the opportunity to be bottled, said Ashni.

In conclusion, Gupta asked the Biyanis to point out three big, upcoming trends in retail. Kishore Biyani replied, "One is 'discovering the new salwar kameez' in India. With the style of teaming jeans with 'kurtas', this is one upcoming trend." The other trend he felt was "becoming more modern is equal to negotiated traditionalist", that is, not forgetting your roots.

Ashni provided the third big trend, saying the group would target migrant and non-migrant audiences differently. "Migrants are those moving to new cities for jobs. Noida and Gurgaon are a couple of big examples of such places. Here, the audience, with its different needs, moves into or takes to modernity and bigger format stores faster, rather than sticking with mom-and-pop-stores." She pointed out that 30 per cent of the population is now migrant population.